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It is over 20 years since he last had a multi-million selling album and more than 45 years since his first hit single, yet Steve Winwood is just as passionate about music as he ever was: “Music is my life... it’s running through my blood”.

John Barleycorn Must Die is the Traffic album that almost never was but which is now commonly regarded as their definitive work. By 1970, still only 22, Steve Winwood had already served time at the heart of The Spencer Davis Group, as a founder member of Traffic, and with the supergroup Blind Faith. What started out as Steve Winwood’s solo debut, originally to be called Mad Shadows (a title later filched by Mott The Hoople), John Barleycorn Must Die became Traffic’s third and most fully realised studio album.